... Consequently, these weights add credence to the growing body of evidence showing that activity upon the Temple Mount during the Byzantine period was greater than previously assumed. The TMSP has unearthed a multitude of artifacts dating to the Byzantine era, such as pieces of Corinthian capitals, chancel screens, patterned floor (opus sectile) tiles, around half a million tesserae from mosaic floors and thousands of roof tile fragments, as well as numerous Byzantine pottery shards and coins. This abundance of Byzantine-period artifacts stands in contrast to a commonly held view that in the Byzantine era the Temple Mount was desolate and undeveloped, and together with the recently discovered weights suggest that there might even have been a Byzantine church upon the Temple Mount. ...UPDATE (29 January): The story is now covered in the Times of Israel in an article by Gavriel Fiske: Tiny weights hint at pre-Muslim Christian presence on Temple Mount – archaeologists. Byzantine-era coin weights, newly discovered in debris from the Jerusalem holy site, are of a type used in 6th century church settings.
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